I managed to survive the first assessment of my apprenticeship.

In last month’s update, I shared how I’d been feeling a little stressed about the project for the first module in the Advanced Data Fellowship (ADF). Entitled Developing Efficient and Secure Data Infrastructure, it was necessary to write a 3,000-word report on a subject I didn’t feel particularly knowledgeable about.

I’m now able to reveal some good news. The results were published to apprentices around three weeks ago and it turns out that I managed to pass with a ‘B+’ grade. As someone who has never had much interested in the infrastructure side of technology, this came as a pleasant surprise; and discovering that I’d managed to avoid any claims of academic misconduct was a huge relief.

The feedback provided by my tutor was fair. The Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours (KSBs) – the standards we’re marked against – I’d scored the highest on were those where I’d been more focused and had provided more detail. I’d had to tackle other areas at a higher level to keep my report as the project I’d chosen was large and needed to be kept within the word count. This is something to bear in mind for future assessments.

Speaking of which: the fact that I officially passed the first ADF module meant that I was allowed to move forward to the second at the beginning of April. We’re now working on Accelerating Data Solutions With DevOps for the next three months. This isn’t a module I’ve been particularly worried about as I have some relevant experience from a previous role as a Database Platforms Engineer. But that’s not to say it was one I was looking forward to when it started three weeks ago.

I’ve discussed my love-hate relationship with DevOps occasionally during our Twitch streams over the past year. On one hand, I can totally get behind its original aims: to build bridges between software development and operations teams, and promote a culture of collaboration, trust and continuous improvement. On the other, I feel that we’ve somewhat lost the community aspect of the methodology. It’s far easier to jump to tools as solutions rather than focus on culture, and this causes us to lose sight of the people involved in the processes.

I wasn’t eager for the module, but it did make me interested to see how our new tutor would teach it. I have to admit that they’re doing really well so far. It’s good to hear them keep reiterating that it’s people over processes over tools, and the sessions so far have had a big focus on the DevOps philosophy and importance of collaboration. This is going to change and become more technical as the units progress due to the requirements for the next project but so far, so good.

It’s this data product that I’m most concerned about. For the second assessment in June, we must analyse a system used at our workplace; gather stakeholder requirements for an improvement to it; and create something to support that improvement, while aligning to DevOps principles and practices. It sounds cool, right? But this has to be done alongside additional learning for the apprenticeship and our day-jobs. I’m almost back at the point where I’m not sure how I’m going to fit it all in.

There are a lot of positives at work at the moment. I’ve managed to make progress on a couple of projects that are going to have some real benefit; one major project has also been pushed back until the summer, and another is simmering along nicely in the background without too much involvement. Every day brings something new, whether it’s an urgent technology problem that needs to be fixed, customer feedback that leads to a service enhancement, or an opportunity to provide mentoring.

This is all interesting stuff but it means a lot of my time is already booked up. I’m not yet at the point I reached during the second month of the ADF, where I felt as though I was really starting to struggle, but I can see it very easily returning to that state if any further work commitments come my way. There isn’t too much I can do about it right now, however. I’ve just got to try and be as organised as possible, keep talking to my manager about my workload, and be honest about whether I’m coping with the stress.

More good news though: the apprenticeship company finally seems to be a little more on top of things. They’ve acknowledged that there are still issues with their online learning platform and have reverted us all back to Microsoft Teams for the current module while they work on them (which is ironic seeing as we’re being taught about DevOps and software development). The tutor and coaches are obviously reading the feedback we’re submitting at the end of each unit and taking it on board.

They’ve also warned the apprentices in my cohort that they must take the opportunity to get more involved in the sessions. Their lack of interaction in group exercises has bugging me and the two others from my company for weeks now. Breakout rooms have become painful experiences because most people don’t want to come onto camera of even unmute themselves to join in. Hopefully this behaviour will change over the coming weeks and we’ll all start to find the exercises more useful as a result.

So, although things are still as crazy as ever at work and I’m never going to love DevOps, I’m feeling positive about the current situation. Let’s see if that’s still the case after four months, in my next update at the end of May.